‘Best Friends Forever’ Taken Off the Air Indefinitely

Here is some sadder news to start the week. On Friday evening, Lennon Parham tweeted, “BFF Fans: Wanted to let you know that our show is being taken off the air until the summer. Hoping to post ep 5 & 6 online asap. We love u.” To which, Jessica St. Clair added, “BFF fans: @lennonparham and I are so in love with each and every one of u - your support of the show means so much to us. #IamaBFFbeliever.”

It’s not a wholly surprising move on NBC’s part, as the show was pretty consistently pulling in about a 0.8 18-49 rating, but it’s still a bummer. BFF was a really wonderful show that tried and succeeded at doing something different but just wasn’t easy for NBC to market. In comparison to mostly every new network sitcom, BFF was especially low concept and lacking in terms of famous people. It’s surprising the show got on the air, in a way, and the fact that it did, is completely due to how inarguably great it is.

The show is survived by its impassioned fan-base, especially in the comedy community. For their fellow comedians, BFF demonstrated that you can make a show on your own terms, completely true to your comic voice, and maybe it didn’t work out but it’s still refreshing to know its possible. There has been an outpouring of support on Twitter and there is a petition to try to save the show.

If the petition doesn’t work, it’s still nice that the show existed in the first place. In my interview with creators/writers/stars Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair, the two outlined how crazy the road has been but ultimately their talent won out. And it will continue to win out and we’ll assuredly see both of them for years to come. Hopefully, and likely, they’ll continue working and writing together because as much as this show is about best friendship in general, it’s also about theirs specifically. Jessica, from our interview, “We didn’t start off writing as best friends but through the process of this we have become best friends. Truly, like closer than any human beings have ever been.” At minimum, that’s not a bad legacy to have.

*UPDATE (5/2/12):

As of today, the petition is near 3,000 signatures and someone made a campaign video. Come on Internet, do your Internet-thang: